


The Love of a Good Friend

by elizabethrene



Series: Angels Watching Over Me [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 17:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15320541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethrene/pseuds/elizabethrene
Summary: Lily overhears a conversation between Dumbledore and Snape while James consoles Remus from the afterlife.





	The Love of a Good Friend

After the unfortunate incident with Frank and Alice, things really did calm down. The Ministry held trials for the suspected Death Eaters they were able to catch. This biggest shock to the courts was when Barty Crouch Jr. was convicted as one of the Death Eaters that tortured the Longbottoms. It was somewhat soothing for both James and Lily to see Barty Crouch Senior be taken down a peg or two after what he did to Sirius. 

There was a point, when Lily was by herself on the cliff, watching Harry, when she couldn’t help but find herself watching Dumbledore sitting in his office with Severus Snape, of all people. Confused by the conditions of this meeting, Lily gave them her full attention. It seemed they had just started their conversation when she heard Snape say, “I thought…you were going…to keep her…safe…”

Her? Snape couldn’t possibly be talking about Lily, could he? He’d made his choice. She was no longer his concern. 

Dumbledore answered Snape’s statement as vague as he ever was. “She and James put their faith in the wrong person. Rather like you, Severus. Weren’t you hoping that Lord Voldemort would spare her?” 

Hoping for me? Lily thought to herself. He couldn’t possibly still have romantic feelings for her. It just didn’t make sense. 

After a long silence, Dumbledore pointed out to the Death Eater, “Her boy survives.”

Lily could see that this was not what Sev wanted to hear. He flicked his body in a familiar fashion that only Lily would recognize. 

Dumbledore continued. “Her son lives. He has her eyes, precisely her eyes. You remember the shape and color of Lily Evans’s eyes, I am sure?”

Lily knew Dumbledore was trying to get under Severus’ skin. She was his one weakness when it came to his beliefs all throughout school and it seemed to her that nothing had changed in that regard.

“DON’T!” Severus yelled. “Gone…dead…”

The vulnerability he was showing was astounding to Lily. She knew he was a master at hiding his feelings but she had always been able to see through it, at least up until they finished school. 

“Is this remorse, Severus?” Dumbledore inquired.

“I wish…I wish I were dead…”

After witnessing this and coming to the conclusion that it was Snape who had informed Voldemort of the prophecy, Lily decided it was better that he wasn’t dead because James would show no mercy towards the man who ruined their happy lives, not to mention what Lily, herself, would do to him for putting her son through this trauma at such a young age. 

“And what would that be to anyone?” Dumbledore snapped. “If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear.” 

Wait, what was Dumbledore doing? Was he really implying that Snape was capable of switching sides simply because she had died? 

Snape seemed to be thinking along the same lines as she was. Finally he asked for clarification. “What – what do you mean?”

“You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily’s son,” Dumbledore replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.  
“He does not need protection. The Dark Lord has gone –, “ was Snape’s reply. 

“The Dark Lord will return, and Harry Potter will be in terrible danger when he does,” Dumbeldore warned, knowing full well Snape was aware of these circumstances deep inside himself. 

After a long pause, Snape said, “Very well. Very well. But never – never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it! I cannot bear…especially Potter’s son…I want your word!”

Lily was shocked. Never in her wildest imagination did she comprehend how much Severus truly cared for her until this moment. 

“My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?” Dumbledore seemed reluctant at first but finally agreed. “If you insist…”

Baffled beyond words, Lily left the cliff and headed home to James. She needed time to process what her one time best friend had just done for her, despite how much he hated her husband and son. 

LOVE

Over time, it seemed that Harry had started to notice the fact that his parents were not around anymore and he had become quite fussy. Lily found it entertaining to watch Petunia become more and more frazzled the more Harry cried. It was an interesting dichotomy for Lily. On the one hand, Lily was enjoying watching her sister suffer after being such a horrid wench to her once she found out she was a witch. On the other hand, she couldn’t stand to see her son suffer because he couldn’t understand why his parents, the two people who had been a constant in his life from the day he was born were no longer there.

When things truly got unbearable to watch, Lily used her newfound tool of communication to comfort him. Harry had always had bouts of fussiness with her as well and she had discovered that talking to him about Quidditch, of all things, helped to sooth him. She blamed James for that. He had insisted on talking to Harry about Quidditch throughout her pregnancy, going on and on about how he was going to be a famous Quidditch star someday. Which, given James’ talent on a broomstick, was entirely possible. As Harry became progressively fussier, Lily and James would take turns soothing him with Quidditch talk only he could hear.

On one particularly fussy day, James was the one to notice and help calm Harry down. When Harry finally settled for a nap, James decided to check in on his friends to see how they were doing. It didn’t take long to see that Sirius was still holding on to his sanity. James knew that the only thing keeping Sirius going was the knowledge that he was innocent and that the rat responsible was still out there, biding his time. 

Sirius was not really one to wallow in self-pity and James knew this. The friend that James was truly concerned about was Remus. Without the Order or any of the other Marauders around, Remus led a pretty secluded life and there were times James feared he might not pull through. 

On this particular day, Remus was recovering from his first full moon without his friends. It had been a rough one for him; the wolf in Remus tended to be how he voiced his emotions to the fullest. Right now, Remus was shadowed with grief and full of misguided anger towards Sirius, Lily and James. He couldn’t believe that Sirius was the one that was acting as a spy for Voldemort. It just didn’t add up. Of course Remus knew it wasn’t himself that was leaking information but it didn’t seem at all possible to him that Sirius or Peter were the culprits either. 

This particular full moon, Remus had released his anger on nature. He had made sure he was secluded deep within a forest, where no human would dare to go so no harm would come to anyone but the unfortunate animals that crossed his path. He had howled and wailed and killed from the time the moon came up until the time he transformed back at dawn. 

Because of his actions, Remus’ recovery was particularly difficult to get through and it was particularly difficult for James to watch. Seeing his friend go through so much inner turmoil brought James to tears. He had a sneaking suspicion that Lily had discovered their ability to communicate with their living loved ones by talking to Sirius so he decided to try his hand at comforting a friend.

“Moony, mate, everything is going to be alright. You can’t spend your life tormented by what happened to all of us. Lily and I are fine, but we can’t stand seeing you, our loyal and wonderful friend, so miserable. You are my brother, Moony, and I need you to go see Dumbledore. I know your ‘furry little problem’ keeps you from being able to find employment and therefore unable to take care of yourself properly. Lily and I wanted to make sure you were taken care of if the worst should happen to us. Dumbledore will know what to do.”  
Remus wasn’t really sure he was hearing what he was hearing for real or if he was being driven so mad with grief that he was imagining James’ voice. But he continued to listen as he realized that James would have thought of him to the very end. James had never truly believed that a friend of his would betray him and he would make sure they were all taken care of if it turned out he was wrong. 

James continued. “Lily and I were always prepared to take care of you no matter what happened and I know you know that but we decided that death should not stand in that way of that, mate. When you go to Dumbledore, he will hand you a key. We know there’s no way you can reside in our home at Godric’s Hollow but we want you to stay at the mansion for as long as you need. We charmed everything in the house to remain fresh and to automatically restock itself as needed, so you’ll never have to worry about any of that.”  
Remus had no intention of indulging in this idea of accepting help. He had never been one to accept any kind of help, even from those that he knew only wanted him to be happy. James knew this as well, that is why Dumbledore was to come and find Remus if he hadn’t heard from him after the 30 days had passed for the Ministry to go over their will. James knew Dumbledore would make sure there were no problems with this part of their will being executed so now he just had to wait for Albus to complete the task.   
“Moony, I love you like a brother but there’s no need to be so stubborn all the time!” James all but shouted at his friend. Now that he had that off his chest, he knew there was one more piece of business he had to plant in Moony’s ear before he went back to Lily for the evening. “Remus, you also need to know that Sirius did not betray Lily and I. There was no way we could tell you without bringing too much attention to ourselves, especially with us not knowing who the spy was. I’m sorry, Remus, for not having complete faith in you, but that was what we felt we had to do for Harry. I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to believe it but Sirius was not the Secret Keeper, it was not him that caused all of this to happen to us!” James knew that was all he would be able to do for the time being. He said his good-byes to his beloved friend and left the cliff to find solace in his wife’s loving arms.


End file.
